


Open Book

by PowerfulTenderness



Category: Devil May Cry
Genre: Alcohol, Dyslexia, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-14
Updated: 2019-12-14
Packaged: 2021-02-26 20:20:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,524
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21794677
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PowerfulTenderness/pseuds/PowerfulTenderness
Summary: You’re pretty certain that someone like V would fall for, well, someone not like you. After all, what do you have but a GED and five cents to your name?
Relationships: V (Devil May Cry)/Reader
Comments: 8
Kudos: 60





	Open Book

**Author's Note:**

> Let’s all pretend that V is his own person. Or else things might not make sense.

Apparently word that the sons of Sparda were in the Underworld had spread. Now every devil topside was coming out of the woodworks. Nero had to recruit extra help to work with the Fortuna branch while Lady and Trish held down Dante’s old shop front. That was how you came to work for Devil May Cry, sometimes helping Lady and Trish and sometimes helping Nero and V. 

The women were fun, but you preferred to take on work with Nero, V, and Nico. Mostly because you just loved being around V. Besides the obvious fact that the man was extremely attractive, to which that air of mystery only enhanced, but he had the voice of a sex god. You were pretty sure. Having been around demons and devils, you were confident enough to make that assertion. 

Currently you were hanging out with said man in the Fortuna office. V and Nero had only returned from a job a day ago and you had been holding down the fort while they were gone. In just that short time they were out on their mission, you found yourself really missing V’s voice. So now here you were sitting at the table with him, your chin in one hand as you stared at him while he read out of his omnipresent book of poetry. 

“Read another one, V, pleeease?”

“You can’t be serious?” Oh yea, and Nero was there too.

“Well, who forgot to pay the cable bill?”

“You!”

“Yea ‘cuz it’s an expense we don’t need! Just finish your sandwich!” 

You turned back to V and smiled at him. “Ok, ok, in deference to our friend here, how about a short one?” 

V, who had been patiently watching the exchange between the two of you, grinned at you. The way one side of his mouth pulled up as he smirked and the way his eyes locked with yours almost made it look like he was silently trying to tell you something. But whatever it was, much like the rest of him, was a mystery to you. 

His tongue swept over his lower lip as he flipped the page. He took in a breath, about to start reading, when Nico suddenly slammed the door from the garage to the kitchen open. “Move your butts, we got a job to do!” 

You sighed, “Seriously?”

V chuckled lowly (that may have been better than a poem!), and clicked his tongue at your apparent disappointment. “Perhaps later.” 

You smiled, his deep seductive laugh was reward enough, but kept up the faux disappointment. “Yea, yea. Let’s just hurry before Nico leaves us.” 

Though, who were you kidding? You’d _love_ to be left alone with V.

-

V entered the garage while you were waiting for Nico to finish tuning up your bike. You glanced at him and when he smiled, you tapped Nico’s foot with your own, “Hey, be right back.” 

“Uh huh.” 

He was smiling at you when you made your way to him, and kept his voice down in an attempt at privacy in the garage, though Nico would probably hear anything anyways. “I saw something in Fortuna that made me think of you.”

“Oh yea? What’s that?” You tried to remain calm, but knowing that V had been thinking about you was making you rather giddy. 

He pulled out a book from his coat and handed it to you. “Here, I wish for you to have it.” 

You took the book and looked down at it, reading the title. It was a book of poetry, different from his own. You must have taken too long because he cleared his throat and said your name nervously. 

“Uh-o-oh! That’s so sweet of you V!” You said as you looked up at him and hugged the book to your chest. 

Thankfully, before things could get awkward, Nico shouted at you, telling you your bike was ready. You glanced around the garage and set the book down on one of the shelves and turned back to V real quick, “Don’t want to lose it, you know?” 

Then you waved to him and jogged back to your bike. “Thanks, Nico.”

She winked at you, “I got your back.” 

“See ya later!” You said to the both of them as you took off to kill some demons.

Nico waited until the roar of your engine was dead before she looked at V with a raised brow, “So, what’s with the lame ass gift? If I were tryna seduce her, I’d get her a new devil arm or something.” 

V smirked, “Then you’d fail. She likes poetry as much as I do.” 

“Does she though?” 

“...What do you mean?”

“I’m just sayin’. I ain’t never seen her read or anything. Even all them notes I put so much time into, she either just asks me straight up or has Nero read ‘em to her.” 

He frowned as Nico walked away, head held up triumphantly like she knew you better than he did. Now that he thought about it, he couldn’t recall you reading anything either. But surely you liked poetry, you were always asking him to read poetry to you.

-

Another great thing about the Fortuna branch of Devil May Cry was Kyrie. She loved to cook for people, and devil hunting was job that often left you hungry. She was roasting a chicken and some vegetables and it was starting to smell just heavenly. 

If you hadn’t already been shooed out of the kitchen, you’d be hanging out with Kyrie, but she did kick you out so you were stuck in the living room adjacent to the kitchen eagerly awaiting dinner time.

“Hey, got kicked out of the kitchen again?” Nero asked as he entered the living room.

“You know me too well.” 

“I wouldn’t say that.” 

Your eyebrows furrowed in confusion as you looked at him. Part of you was hurt. After all, you’d been working with him for months now and you weren’t exactly a secretive person. “Why’s that?” 

Nero reached into his back pocket and pulled out the book and dropped it onto the coffee table in front of you. “I figured you’d love something like this, especially from V.” 

You sat up straight and looked at the book you had been avoiding. “Oh.”

“Oh? Oh, what?” He almost snapped, though managed to keep his voice level, still you heard the aggression behind it.

You glared at him, “Dude, calm down. I just kinda hate poems.” 

He shook his head and scrunched up his face like he always did when he was confused. “What?” 

You shrugged and slouched against the couch again. “I dunno, I just don’t have the patience to sit around and think about the meaning of things.” 

“Then why are you always asking V to read poems to you?” 

“Are you kidding me? Have you _heard_ the man speak? He could read a dictionary and I’d _still_ be entranced. His voice is just so, soo, hot!” You threw a hand over your heart and sighed dramatically, “I could just listen to him all day!” Then you shrugged again, a smile tugging at your lips as you just thought about V’s voice. “I ask him to read all that poetry crap ‘cuz that’s what _he_ likes.” 

Nero stared at you for a few seconds then back down at the poetry book. 

“...So, you do _like_ V?”

You dropped your wistful smile and turned your head towards the kitchen, avoiding eye contact with your friend. “What does that matter? I just appreciate him from afar.” 

“What? Why?” 

“‘Cuz I’m not…” You mumbled the rest of your answer, biting down the frustration that was boiling inside you now. 

“What?” 

“‘Cuz I’m not good enough for him, ok?!” You snapped and jumped up, pushing past him towards the front door.

“ _What_?” 

“LEARN NEW WORDS, NERO!” You yelled as you forcefully pulled the front door open and nearly ran into the object of your affections.

Your eyebrows shot up as you took a step back and looked at V, trying to hide your earlier frustrations that Nero brought up. 

“Ah,” he greeted you, “It smells like dinner is almost ready.” He smiled and took a step forward into the house.

“Yea. Enjoy.” You muttered as you stepped around him and tried to leave.

“Where are you going?” 

“Just-Just get off my back!” You yelled again and slammed the door shut.

V blinked at the door, surprised and confused. 

Nero sighed and clapped a hand on V’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, man. That was my fault, I got her all mad and she snapped at you. She’ll probably apologize later when she cools down.” 

“What was she mad about?” 

Nero scratched the back of his head as he tried to think of an answer. “Uhh...I don’t know if I should tell you. I mean, it’s not my business to tell.” 

V now stared at Nero, eyes narrowed as if he could determine the cause of your rage just from looking at the other man. “I see.” 

He couldn’t very well press Nero without it feeling like he was disrespecting your privacy, so he let the subject drop and headed towards the dining room, where Kyrie was already setting the food down. 

-

Even without a client to save, you found a horde of demons to kill and blow off steam. The demons became your frustrations. Every teacher that told you to give up, every book you didn’t finish, every stupid letter that taunted you. Your sword sliced through them all, until you were left with nothing but your emotions. 

You cleaned off your sword and sighed, deciding then to do what you always did in moments like this. Drink yourself silly until you repressed everything again. 

-

You were sober when you settled onto the roof of the garage with junk food and beer. You were _not_ sober when the door to the roof opened and someone decided to join you. You looked over to your right as V sat down in the lawn chair a few feet away from yours. He didn’t say anything, just looked up at the night sky.

After some minutes of silence, the only sound was you opening another beer, V spoke.

“ _I was angry with my friend: I told my wrath, my wrath did end_.” 

You sighed, even though you were inebriated and with him quoting some fancy pants poem, you understood. “Sorry for yellin’ at ya. Nero was bein’ a bitch an’ pissed me off.” 

V hummed and finally looked at you, “He said as much.”

“He said he was bein’ a bitch?” 

Your quip was rewarded with a deep chuckle. “Not quite. May I ask what you were angry about?” 

“I dun wanna talk about it.” You mumbled into your beer bottle. 

“Does it have anything to do with this?” 

He pulled that damn book out of his pocket and held it out to you again. This time you couldn’t stop yourself from rolling your eyes. “Ugh. Yea.” 

He reached out even further and dropped the book on your lap. “You didn’t open it, did you?”

You sighed and grabbed the book. “Listen, V. I’m happy that you were thinkin’ ‘bout me. But I dun really like to read.” 

“Open it.” 

You tossed back the rest of your beer, forcing tears back and emotions down. You had a feeling he was going to ask you to read it. Some damn poem that meant something deep to him. Except it wouldn’t be nearly as elegant coming from you. And he’d find out what you’d been trying to casually hide from him. He’d find out just how stupid you were and he’d lose any interest he ever had in you. 

When you didn’t open the book he spoke again. “I must confess, I asked Lady about your background.”

You scrunched up your face, wondering what he was digging up on you.

“Lady ran a background check on you before you were hired.” “Yea. So?” 

“And she found your academic records. It seems you were a poor student.”

You scoffed and grabbed another beer. “I’m a demon hunner, I don’ need that shit.” 

You took another long swig of your beer and refused to look at him. You’d had similar conversations with teachers and tutors before. You didn’t want to see the look of disappointment on his face when he gave up on you too. 

“That book is printed in Dyslexie, a font designed to make it easier for people with dyslexia to read.” 

Slowly you set down your beer and opened the book to the first page. You blinked, expecting to see a bunch of jumbled up letters swimming on the page. But instead the letters were much clearer than usual and you managed to read through an entire stanza and only stumbled, mentally for you weren’t about to read out loud yet, a few times. 

“How...how did you know I’m dyslexic?” 

“ _Can I see anothers woe, And not be in sorrow too?_

_Can I see anothers grief,_

_And not seek for kind relief_.” 

Despite yourself, you smiled at him. “Thas, that’s not really an answer.” 

V chuckled and moved to kneel next to your chair. He gently took one of your hands in his and rubbed the back of your knuckles in sooth circles. This kept you still, unable and unwilling to pull away from him to hide your feelings behind another bottle of beer. 

“One of the things I admire about you is how open you are.” 

You weren’t sure if it was the fact that he was staring at you like a dream or if it was the alcohol, but either way, you were beginning to feel really warm. 

“You let me know without telling me. You never hid that you didn’t want to read, in fact, you seemed to _like_ being read to.” 

You flushed and scratched the back of your head with your free hand. “I mean, only when it was you.” 

V stood, pulling you up with him, and gently traced the outline of your lower lip with his thumb. You leaned forward, he leaned down slightly, you licked your lips and V tapped your nose with his cane.

“...Wut?” 

A large grin graced his face, enough that even though you were confused you couldn’t help but mirror. 

“Perhaps we should continue this conversation when you’re sober.”

“I mean, I’m not that drunk!” _Hiccup!_ “That was a coincidence.” 

_“Come, on wings of joy we’ll fly_

_To where my bower hangs on high;_

_Come, and make thy calm retreat_

_Among green leaves and blossoms sweet.”_

“...wut?”

His cane tapped your hand that was holding the book of poetry that you’d already forgotten. “Blake, The Birds.”

You ignored his answer and stared down at the cane in his hand long enough for him to clear his throat and raise a confused eyebrow when you looked up again. “Try that on me again...when I’m sober.” 

Judging by the sudden wide eyed expression you managed to surprise him, but soon he was smirking at you, emerald eyes gleaming with the same desire you felt in your core. 

**Author's Note:**

> If you enjoyed this fic, check out my Tumblr (powerfultenderness.tumblr.com) for more of my work.


End file.
